---
title: But the evil spirit was angry at this, so he set to work with soot a… — Fairy Tales of Hans Christian Andersen · tree and pragmatics
description: But the evil spirit was angry at this, so he set to work with soot and incense, which he can mix so artfully as to confuse an angel, and how much more easily a poor poet. Who acts: evil spirit, poet, soot. A sentence of «Fairy Tales of Hans Christian Andersen» by H. C. Andersen, The Philosopher's St
---

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# Fairy Tales of Hans Christian Andersen, The Philosopher's Stone, sentence 134

<!-- .ven lang=en -->
But the evil spirit was angry at this, so he set to work with soot and incense, which he can mix so artfully as to confuse an angel, and how much more easily a poor poet.

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**Who acts:** evil spirit, poet, soot · **What happens:** be, set, work, mix, confuse · **To what, where:** this, poor poet, angel

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This is a sentence of «Fairy Tales of Hans Christian Andersen» by H. C. Andersen, The Philosopher's Stone. The page gives its syntax tree — a dependency tree in the style of Universal Dependencies — and its pragmatics clause by clause: who acts (evil spirit, poet, soot), what happens, when and where, as Mova's frames read it from the tree.

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**Parsed by Mova, not checked by a teacher.** This tree is Mova's own parse (the `en` model, on the CPU, when the site is built); it may be wrong.

## The tree {#tree}

```conllu
# sent_id = book:pg27200:143:134
# text = But the evil spirit was angry at this, so he set to work with soot and incense, which he can mix so artfully as to confuse an angel, and how much more easily a poor poet.
1	But	but	CCONJ	CC	_	6	cc	_	_
2	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	4	det	_	_
3	evil	evil	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	4	amod	_	_
4	spirit	spirit	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	6	nsubj	_	_
5	was	be	AUX	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	6	cop	_	_
6	angry	angry	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	0	root	_	_
7	at	at	ADP	IN	_	8	case	_	_
8	this	this	PRON	DT	Number=Sing|PronType=Dem	6	obl	_	SpaceAfter=No
9	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	12	punct	_	_
10	so	so	ADV	RB	_	12	advmod	_	_
11	he	he	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	12	nsubj	_	_
12	set	set	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	6	conj	_	_
13	to	to	PART	TO	_	14	mark	_	_
14	work	work	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	12	xcomp	_	_
15	with	with	ADP	IN	_	16	case	_	_
16	soot	soot	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	14	obl	_	_
17	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	18	cc	_	_
18	incense	incense	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	16	conj	_	SpaceAfter=No
19	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	23	punct	_	_
20	which	which	PRON	WDT	PronType=Rel	23	nsubj	_	_
21	he	he	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	23	nsubj	_	_
22	can	can	AUX	MD	VerbForm=Fin	23	aux	_	_
23	mix	mix	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	16	parataxis	_	_
24	so	so	ADV	RB	_	25	advmod	_	_
25	artfully	artfully	ADV	RB	_	23	advmod	_	_
26	as	as	SCONJ	IN	_	28	mark	_	_
27	to	to	PART	TO	_	28	mark	_	_
28	confuse	confuse	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	25	advcl	_	_
29	an	a	DET	DT	Definite=Ind|PronType=Art	30	det	_	_
30	angel	angel	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	28	obj	_	SpaceAfter=No
31	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	39	punct	_	_
32	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	39	cc	_	_
33	how	how	ADV	WRB	PronType=Int	34	advmod	_	_
34	much	much	ADV	RB	_	35	advmod	_	_
35	more	more	ADV	RBR	Degree=Cmp	36	advmod	_	_
36	easily	easily	ADV	RB	_	39	advmod	_	_
37	a	a	DET	DT	Definite=Ind|PronType=Art	39	det	_	_
38	poor	poor	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	39	amod	_	_
39	poet	poet	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	12	obl	_	SpaceAfter=No
40	.	.	PUNCT	.	_	6	punct	_	_
```

## Pragmatics {#pragmatics}

<!-- .fr -->
| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **is** | past | the evil spirit |  |  | this |  | angry *property* | tree rules |
| 2 | **set** | past | poet | a poor poet |  |  |  |  | tree rules |
| 3 | **work** | to-infinitive | poet *not said here* |  |  |  |  | with soot and incense | vn cooperate-73.1-3 «NP V PP.co-agent PP.theme»: agent=Agent with soot=Co-Agent |
| 4 | **mix** | can | soot and incense |  |  |  |  | artfully *property* | vn mix-22.1-1-1 «NP V»: agent=Patient |
| 5 | **confuse** | to-infinitive | soot and incense *not said here* | a angel |  |  |  |  | vn amalgamate-22.2-2 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent angel=Patient |

<!-- .note -->
One row per clause the reader finds. «not said here»: a role filled from the clause above. «roles by»: a VerbNet class and frame when one fits the verb, else the reader's rules on the tree.

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**Text:** «Fairy Tales of Hans Christian Andersen» by H. C. Andersen, Project Gutenberg book 27200 (public domain in the USA). **Tree:** Mova's own parse, Elamur Cosmic License. **Frames:** Mova's frames reader (`prag`), the chapter read in order.

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